Hog Hollow Lodge at Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

The other day, me and the Boy were reminiscing about our time in South Africa, the adventures and most important the food and luxury accommodation! South Africa is home to three of my top five favourite hotels I have stayed in so far (Camp Bay Retreat and Bayethe in Shamwari) so I want to share with you our experience of the Hog Hollow Lodge in Plettenberg Bay. 

stunning - low clouds and dense forest

These private lodges with roaring fires ad balconies overlooking the forest, and the little touches that make a hotel stay cute  (my favourite being tubs of popcorn and biscuits, the hot water bottle at night and a bed time story left on our pillow), the stay here was oh so comfy and absolutely welcoming. I didn't want to leave!!! 

roaring fires in the rooms 

cute - bedtime story on the pillows 

Eating out in Cape Town, South Africa

I did what any self respecting food lover would do on my honeymoon and that was eat, eat and eat some more.

We were lucky enough to eat some amazing food in Cape Town, some restaurants we visited on recommendation and others by chance. On our transfer from the airport to the hotel, our driver told me I was going to put on 10kg from all the good food. I put on ½ stone and the Boy put on 5 kg so he was kind of right.

Part of the wonderful experience in Cape Town was all the fantastic food so I want to share with you my recommendations for eating out in Cape Town.

Restaurant at our hotel Camps Bay Retreat

Having just arrived off a long flight and tired (ok, I wasn’t – I slept the whole way from London, I am one of those irritating people that can sleep on planes), we decided to eat at the hotel. Whilst this was a choice of laziness, it was a delicious meal and would actually recommend trying this  place if you come to Cape Town.

The view of the sea, glistening in the moonlight and the tranquil greenery was a warm welcome to the trip. I went for the salmon and the Boy had a classic mac n cheese with a twist of apple sauce and potato.

salmon topped with mango salsa

apple sauce with mac n cheese - it works! 

Fine dining at "Jordan" in the winelands, Stellenbosch, South Africa

No trip to South Africa and Cape Town would be complete without a trip to the famous winelands - miles of glorious mountainous landscape and an obscene amount of vineyards and varieties of wine. I have already blogged about South Africa but we were reminiscing the other day and I realised I never actually blogged about our dining experience in Jordan, and being one of the best meals I have ever had, I have to share it! 

Safari, Shamwari, South Africa (part 2) - "don't pretend you are an animal in the dark"

As you  know, I have recently  returned from a trip of a lifetime to South Africa which included three amazing nights at safari. It was such an blockbuster of a trip, for just those three nights, 
I  have had to split the blog into two parts. 
Here is part two, but read part one -  "Don't base your expectations on the Lion King" here

….To really get into the thick of it (as if being in a jeep 2 meters away weren’t close enough )we went on a ‘bush walk’… in a nutshell, we stalked some lionesses and cubs on foot. Seeing them without the safety of a huge vehicle is amazing (although he did have two guides and two shotguns).

look closely and you'll see giraffe in the back ground

When on a walk, you really wake up to what’s around you, becoming more alert to sounds and movements in the bushes. You’re pretty safe to be honest as the lions warn you with their gruff roar that you’re getting uncomfortably close into their territory!!! The worse thing that happened to me, was picking up a giant earth worm and it pooing on me (it is ok, I was wearing the Boy's coat, so just wiped my hands on that). 

the greenery of the scenery 

We had three nights on the Shamwari reserve, about an hour or so drive from Port Elizabeth, but to be honest, I don' really know as I was doing my best at being a navigator and was asleep for most of the journey. Anyway, Shamwari is a 25,000 hector area of land which helps protect, preserve, and rehabilitate the endangered safari animals, so as  well as seeing these beasts at their finest, you are also doing your bit to help conserve them!!!

Safari, Shamwari, South Africa (part one) - "don't base your expectations on The Lion King"

The main reason for holidaying in South Africa has to be to come on safari! It was totally the Boy’s choice, and in all honesty, I am not even the biggest animal fan, but the whole trip to South Africa was a travel adventure not to be missed so I was keen to have this as our honeymoon destination.

So, to finish off South Africa, we had three days of safari time, which means 6 game drives.

seriously close to this beautiful beast

blending in with the wildlife! 

How would I sum up the safari….

…totally epic!!!

Bungee jumping off the world's highest bungee bridge! (you'll love these pictures)

Bungee jumping is one of those things that have always been on my bucket list (along with making my own jam, going to The Ritz for afternoon tea and learning the sax – it’s an eclectic list). Whilst I like the idea of the thrill of it, and plus the bragging rights, I am actually scared of heights. Ok, not so much heights but more have a fear of falling. Funnily enough, so does the Boy so I have no idea why we put it on our to do list for the honeymoon.

But it was on the list. And we have told people. So we had to go through with it!!!

the Boy, showing off and doing it like a pro

Waking up to a deep set cloud, so low we couldn’t see that far ahead of us, we weren’t even sure we were  going to be able to do it anyway. The weather was just so bad. We were meant to be jumping at 1pm but missed the fact that we were meant to get there an hour before so when we rocked up at 1pm, we were told we would have to wait for the 2pm slot.

Waiting around has to be the worst thing about the whole experience. 

Getting weighed (I put 2kg on in a week, damn good food) and getting kitted up took all of ten minutes so it was a long drawn out wait for our slot. It actually worked out well for us though, because by 2pm, the clouds had parted, revelling the valley and mountains before us. Although I am not sure if that is a good thing because now we could see how far up we were – and it was high. This is the world’s highest bridge bungee at over 200m!!!!

highest bungee jump from a bridge in the world!

St Francis Bay (and Jeffrey's Bay), South Africa

Being pretty much slap bang between Plettenberg Bay and Shamwari (our game reserve destination), we stopped off at St Francis Bay for two nights. On our first night, we didn’t arrive at our B&B “Sandals” until about 6pm, so we went straight to dinner. We ate on the recommendation of the guy who checked us in, going for seafood and sushi at “Christy’s Catch” a cute, down to earth, family run restaurant, two minutes walk from the B&B.

you can see our room's balcony top left

enjoying a kaluha 'don pedro' at Christy's Catch 
(ice cream and kaluha liquor)

Our hotel had a convenient location of being round the corner to the high street and main area, but when I say high street, this isn’t a hustlin’ and bustlin’ strip but a small collection of shops and eateries.

There is actually quite a bit to do around St Francis Bay, from boating activities, hiking, deep sea fishing and quad biking etc, a bit similar to Plettenberg Bay.

One of the reasons the Boy wanted to stop here though was for the surfing. 

Plettenberg Bay, South Africa - home of Tsitsikamma forest

After driving through Oudtshoorn we decided that there was no point staying in the town for the sake of it so decided to drive straight to Plettenberg Bay (aka ‘Plett’) after we had done the whole ostrich thing in the morning. (read about that here) 

This was one of my favourite drives so far, purely because  we were driving in the clouds, something I don't recall doing before!

driving the Garden Route in the clouds!!!

Like the other places, Plettenberg bay is a small coastal town, with not that much to do in the centre. The little town reminded me a little of Byron Bay in Australia with its  relaxed  vibe and quite high street, peppered with a few people here and there enjoying an icecream or coffee.

the outskirts of Tsitsikamma 

However, you come to Plett for the scenery, nature and adrenalin filled activities. The surrounding area has so much to offer, from horse riding, sailing, tubing, sky diving, to seeing animals, hiking in the forests and camping..

Oudtshoorn, South Africa - aka ostrich country

Oudtshoorn is famous ostrich land in South Africa, so the only reason I guess why tourists stop here. We stayed at “De Opstal”, the address that was descried on our itinerary from Trailfinders as being “on road R328 towards the Cango Caves, 14km outside Oudtshoorn”, which is  about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Outdshoorn - home of these long legged ugly birds!!!

But it was a quaint lodge with private rooms and balconies overlooking the hillside, with a real homely farm house feel to it. Plus there were little glass jars of homemade cookies dotted about everywhere!    

our room 

cute country feel to the lodge

It was also conveniently located to the ostrich farms. There are loads of theses farms that are sprinkled about in the area, I don’t think you need to go to a particular one, I reckon they are all pretty much the same.

From Stellenbosch (winelands) to Montagu

The next stop of our road trip was Montagu, about a two hour drive from Stellenbosch. In all honesty, there isn’t much to do there – we chose to stop here because it was in between Oudtshoorn, and seeing as we don’t have a car back home so are not used to driving, we didn’t fancy a  5 hour drive. 

the drive  to Montagu

mountain surround the roads!

Whereas Stellenbosch was a small, quaint town, it was catered to tourists, with plenty of restaurant choices that offered good food, amazing backdrop scenery and an old town ambience. For me Montagu on the other hand was just a small town with simple architecture and amenities, nothing too special.

We stayed at the Mimosa Lodge which was perfect for or needs – a massive room with a huge comfy bed, overlooking the mountains. Oh and free dessert wine in a cute vinaigrette bottle.... As if I needed anymore wine though seeing as I had been on a wine tasting tour since 10am, plus sampled some of the local Montagu rose wines at dinner (just the two glasses though).  

our room at Mimosa Lodge 

The morning of our travels to Oudtshoorn we stopped by the Montagu hot springs (aka Avalon Springs). We were expecting little rock pools and hot  springs to be doted amongst the  greenery and hills but turn out it was more of a family day spot – a series of manmade heated outdoor pools, picnic areas and BBQ spots that were crammed to the brim with local kids. 

the rock face at Avalon Springs

more heated pool than hot springs 

I can see why it is popular with locals and families but if you only have a short amount of time on your trip, don’t feel bad about cutting out Montagu. 

X x X


read part one of Cape Town here
read part two of Cape Town hereread about our  amazing  hotel here

The Winelands, Stellenbosch, South Africa

No trip to South Africa and Cape Town would be complete without a trip to the famous winelands –miles of glorious mountainous landscape and an obscene amount of vineyards and varieties of wine. We were  told that this is the perfect time to come as it was the ‘winelands secret season’… the summer days are just hanging on whilst we turn into Autumn, but there is a cooler taste in the air.

no trip to Cape Town is complete without a wine tour!!!

We arrived at our hotel in Stellenbosch at 9pm and normally booking on for a wine tour for the next day wouldn’t have been an issue. Except tomorrow in our case was Good Friday so no tours were operating on this bank holiday.

Cape Town part two: Table Mountains, Penguins, Seals, Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Point

With only 4 nights in the South African capital, it was a tough game fitting everything in. One of the trips that we decided to do combined the penguins, seals, gardens and cape point. Not normally a fan of tours, this was actually great - small group of 10 and plenty of time to see the attractions plus none of the hassle of navigating our way round!

We went with Ilios who were actually really good at this tour guiding malarkey!

Kirstenbosch gardens

Penguins, seals, Kirstenbosch Gardens and Cape Point

Penguins are one of my favourite animals (along with the slow lorris, ducks and sausage dogs FYI) so no trip to Cape Town was going to be complete without seeing the African penguins at Boulders Bay. We decided to book a tour for this, which turned out to be an all day thing and not just admiring the penguins.

Camps Bay Retreat Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

For the start of our adventure, we had four nights in Cape Town. When we left the capital for our twelve day road trip along the garden route, one of the things I was sad to leave was our hotel. Less of a hotel actually and more of boutique B&B set in some lush surroundings, this is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in.

the veranda and gardens overlooking the sea

We stayed at the Camps Bay Retreat, in the laid back beach area of Camps Bay, which we were informed, numerous times, that Camps Bay was the area for the rich and famous! 

one of the lounges  

Cape town part one: city tour, V&A waterfront, shark diving

Last weekend me and the Boy left Heathrow airport, bound for South Africa for a three week epic adventure, starting in Cape Town. We only had 4 nights in Cape Town but I am pleased to say that the place didn’t disappoint! We loved it there.

Friendly people.

Delicious food.

Cheap wine.

Picture worthy scenery.

Camps Bay 

A great start to our honeymoon. 

With such a short time here, we certainly managed to cram a lot in! From shark diving to enjoying the views from cable mountain to generally eating my body weight in great food. 

Camps Bay beach front